Friday, December 01, 2006

Friday Forecast and more

The Staggers has, to its great credit IMO, printed a reply to our Nick by Ted Honderich. (Less to its credit is the blurb thing that comes between the headline and the article "Here he responds, awarding our writer not a very high mark for his efforts.") If you read Honderich's earlier response much of the substance (and the prose) will be familiar.

Nick doesn't appear to be in this week's: not reporting from 'out and about' or whatever he does.

So, what will our boys say this week? I think Nick may do film: I expect a rehash of Joe Queenan utterly wrong-headed review of 'Borat'. "Baron Cohen is just another English public school boy who hates Americans." I intend to go into this at greater length elsewhere, but I largely agree with Jim Henley (and the review he links to), while I also think that the reasons Borat was filmed in the US were, American politeness as Jim says, a weak dollar, and the fact that while British and European audiences will go to a film made in the US, US audiences rarely go to films made east of the Atlantic. Also the director, Larry Charles, is an American. Nick may even follow this up with an appreciation of the forthcoming Kate Winslett confection 'The Holiday' about trans-Atlantic romances: see, we can all get on after all.

Recently, Nick praised a book by George Walden. Walden writes in today's Torygraph on white flight.

There are three sides in the immigration debate. The racists, overt or crypto, who feed irrational fears; the old Left, typified by [Ken] Livingstone, who, like their opponents, see everything through inflamed, race-conscious eyes, and have a vested interest in perpetuating old battles; and the new realists, like [Trevor] Phillips, who recognise the paradox that multi-culturalism means segregation, and that a consensus is developing amongst natives and newcomers in favour of limits on immigration.

I've a fair amount of sympathy for Trevor Phillips myself, though I think the above is an over-simplification. I can imagine that it will appeal to Nick.

Lastly, I imagine that, if he didn't go to press to soon, Nick will mention Gordon Brown's son.

Aaro is too hard to call usually: though Michael Grade and the Beeb would be his specialist subject, where he can actually supply some insight and inside knowledge.